Chemical Speciation of Trace Metals

One of the most crucial advances in the field of aquatic chemistry in these last years has been the development of new concepts about the speciation of trace elements in the aquatic environment. This became possible — even though the basic ideas have long been known — only when the development of methods for trace and ultratrace analysis were such that the reliable determination of total concentrations of elements became common. Then it appeared clear that the knowledge of the total concentration of trace elements was definitely insufficient to understand their behavior in water bodies, their biogeochemical cycles, and their ecotoxicity. ^{1 - 3}